The Amazon Basin is the size of the 48 contiguous states of the USA. Fortunately, the vast majority of it (77%) is in standing forest, and 54% of that standing forest is in protected areas that are in fact truly protected on the ground, not just on paper.

SouthWild biologists have a combined total of more than 100 years of experience searching for and studying the ecology and behavior of the rarest, most spectacular wildlife species in many parts of the Amazon. No other tour company has anything like the reach of SouthWild in terms of understanding the complexities and beauty of the world’s largest rainforest.

Every decade or so, SouthWild researchers discover something shockingly important in some corner of the Amazon. SouthWild’s most important Amazonian discovery ever might be from January 2017, when we learned from Harpy Eagle biologist Everton Miranda that a, huge, Pennsylvania-sized chunk of the southern Amazon is blessed with an extensive network of forest workers who criss cross the forest but do not hunt at all. These thousands of non-hunting informants have shown us previously-unimaginable concentrations of large, charismatic, and extremely habituated animals that include such photographers’s Holy Grails as Harpy Eagles, Brazilian Tapirs, Scarlet, Blue-and-Gold, and Red-and-Green Macaws, and four particularly beautiful and elusive primates: Woolly Monkeys, White-whiskered Spider Monkeys, Red-handed Howlers, and, most amazing of all, the endangered White-nosed Saki.

SouthWild is busy designing a new itinerary in this part of the South Amazon, one that will showcase these attractive species for wildlife photographers finally to get good photos of all these species on only one expedition.

Fortunately, this wildlife-rich part of the southern Amazon has short, daily jet flights from Cuiabá, which already is the Jaguar Capital of the world, and there are good options for air-conditioned hotels and lodges near this amazing wildlife windfall. Stay tuned to see announcements later this year about our new South Amazon Wildlife Blowout Tours, which will offer the finest wildlife experience in the history of the Amazon.